Chapter '^mntptyvtz 



ON THE PLATEAU TO THE FURTHEST SOUTH 



r\ECEMBER 18.— Almost up ! The altitude to-night is 

 7400 ft. above sea-level. This has been one of our 

 hardest days, but worth it, for we are just on the plateau 

 at last. We started at 7.30 a.m., relaying the sledges, and 

 did 6 miles 600 yards, which means nearly 19 miles for the 

 day of actual travelling. All the morning we worked 

 up loose, slippery ice, hauling the sledges up one at a 

 time by means of the Alpine rope, then pulling in harness 

 on the less stiff rises. We camped for lunch at 12.45 

 p.m. on the crest of a rise close to the pressure and in 

 the midst of crevasses, into one of which I managed 

 to fall, also Adams. Whilst lunch was preparing I 

 got some rock from the land, quite different to the 

 sandstone of yesterday. The mountains are all dif- 

 ferent just here. The land on our left shows beauti- 

 fully clear stratified lines, and on the west side sandstone 

 stands out, greatly weathered. All the afternoon we re- 

 layed up a long snow slope, and we were hungry and 

 tired when we reached camp. We have been saving food 

 to make it spin out, and that increases our hunger; each 

 night we all dream of foods. We save two biscuits per 

 man per day, also pemmican and sugar, eking out our 

 food with pony maize, which we soak in water to make 

 it less hard. All this means that we have now five weeks' 

 food, while we are about 300 geographical miles from the 

 Pole, with the same distance back to the last depot we 



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